France on Tuesday reported 762 more COVID-19 deaths in hospitals and nursing homes, bringing its total toll from the epidemic to 15.

The number of confirmed cases in France now exceeds 100,000, according to the health official Jerome Salomon.

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However that the total number of patients in intensive care fell for the sixth day in a row, by 91 to 6,730

Earlier on Monday, France extended its nationwide lockdown for another month in a bid to halt the coronavirus pandemic, as other hard-hit countries considered easing their measures with hopes rising that death rates may soon plateau.

The details of how the lockdown will be eased have yet to be made clear and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner emphasised that the date was not set in stone and depended on positive trends continuing.

“May 11 is an objective,” he told France Inter radio. “It is a date that we must achieve by respecting the lockdown,” he said.

In a televised address to the nation, President Emmanuel Macron said the epidemic was “beginning to steady… (and) hope is returning”.

“May 11 will be the start of a new phase. It will be progressive and the rules can be adapted according to our results”, the president further added.

France reported a slight increase in hospital deaths on Monday — though still below its record numbers of last week — and a slight dip in intensive care patients for a fifth day running.

Macron in his speech also indicated that a COVID-19 vaccine would be the only long-term solution.

There was no evidence of so-called herd immunity among people in France with only a minority of people infected, the president added.

The official number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in France is now 103,573 but officials believe this is vastly understated due to a lack of testing.

France has been in lockdown since March 17 in a bid to slow the spread of the epidemic and officials have repeatedly warned it will take time for the measures to bear fruit.

The number of people infected with the new coronavirus worldwide has surpassed 1.8 million with 71,779 cases verified over the past 24 hours, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

According to the report, the global count of confirmed COVID-19 cases has reached 1,844,863, with the majority of them concentrated in Europe (943,272) and the Americas (644,986).

The death toll has grown by 5,369 cases over the past day to a total of 117,021 fatalities, the report read.

The coronavirus death toll in the United States crossed 25,000 on Tuesday with the country witnessing the highest single-day tally of 2,129.